health headline and a new study about extreme stress and the benefits of meditation. It's who they followed that is key here. They studied Marines and could stress after the battle field be reduced with help from meditation and can the findings help everyone. Here's ABC's Dan Harris tonight. Reporter: We're on patrol with a squad from the 11th marine expeditionary unit, when an ied goes off. There's gunfire and casualties. This whole thing may look very convincing, bit in fact it's a mock Afghan village at a marine base in southern California. All the villagers are actors, right down to the supposed ied victim. The Marines are very real, though and they are part of a cutting-edge and rather surprising new experiment where these men who see the world through the eyes of warriors are being told to close their eyes and meditate. The first time they said to you, we're going to teach you how to meditate, what was your gut reaction? I think this is going to be absolutely ridiculous. Reporter: Despite initial skepticism, researchers monitored the men's physical reaction to the stress of this training and in a new study published by the American journal of psychiatry, found that the troops who had taken a short course in meditation recovered more quickly. A growing body of research has produced some surprising converts to meditation from executives at General Mills, target, and Google to elite athletes like the Seattle seahawks, to pop stars like 50 cent to a fidgety, skeptical news anchor like me. In fact I just wrote a book about meditation called "Ten percent happier." As for the Marines, they're hoping meditation can create warriors who are less prone to PTSD and more effective on the battlefield. Dan Harris, ABC news, camp Pendleton.

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